Dr. Frank Karantonis, president of Greek Canadian Games, arranged for hundreds of local fans to take in Monday night's Bucks-Raptors contest at the ACC. (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star)

“I think the biggest connection is his humility,” Karantonis, who spearheaded an Antetokounmpo appreciation night at the Air Canada Centre on Monday, said in a telephone interview.

“He grew up very poor in Greece, in Athens, and just to make some money to give back to the family he would sell CDs on the street, he would wipe windows. (It’s) just his connection to his family and his loyalty to his country.

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“There’s just something about his humility that connects us with him and wanting to achieve our dreams some day.”

Karantonis had a group of more than 700 at Monday’s Raptors-Bucks game, set up through the Greek Canadian Games organization that holds an Olympics-style, multi-sport celebration for Greek youth each summer.

The game was designated Greek Heritage Night by the Raptors, in part to help Karantonis’s group celebrate some of the most passionate sports fans in the world. Anyone who has been anywhere near a world championship in any sport or a Games knows how fervent the Greeks can be.

“They are just so thirsty for success and haven’t had a lot of it,” said Karantonis, a general practitioner in downtown Toronto. “In 2004, when we won the Euro (soccer championship), it was the greatest summer of our lives and now there’s something about Giannis and his connection to humanity.

“He’s such a great story and a hero to all of us.”

He may not be a hero to the Raptors because he is the most vexing opponent they face, a five-position stud who is a matchup nightmare. But away from the game, they hold him in high regard.

“I think he plays with a pure heart. He’s trying to win. I don’t think there’s a selfish bone in his body,” Raptors coach Casey said. “He practises, from my understanding, the way he plays and you love that. His teammates love that because now he can go to another player and say, ‘Hey, you’re not going hard enough because I do it.’

“His freshness, his innocence and he enjoys the game. All of those things rub the players the right way, his teammates the right way.”

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And opponents.

“I don’t know if it’s his name, his nickname (Greek Freak), the last name — no one can say it, no one can spell it — he definitely does (have a connection),” DeRozan said.

Antetokounmpo also has skills that are crazy. He went into Monday’s game averaging career highs in points per game (29.1) and rebounds (10.4) while shooting 54.7 per cent from the field. He’s not an accomplished or frequent three-point shooter (26.8 per cent on fewer than two attempts per game), but his ability to get to the rim with relative ease more than makes up for any shooting deficiencies in his game. He’s destined for another all-star appearance and seems to be a most valuable player candidate in waiting.

“He’s a freak of nature, honestly,” DeRozan said. ”I remember his first couple years, he was skinny. Now he’s out there looking like a grown man and he’s out there playing like one. The way he’s playing, he’s playing like a franchise type of player. It’s fun to watch a guy like that, at (six-foot-11), with a wingspan of seven-whatever, handling the ball, creating for his teammates. It’s a great to watch him as a basketball player.”

Raptors president Masai Ujiri tried desperately to trade into the 2015 draft so he could take the teenager. His connection to the Antetokounmpo family is long-standing. Ujiri helped the family emigrate from Nigeria to Greece to start the 23-year-old on his path to NBA greatness and the “what-if” possibility of Ujiri getting Antetokounmpo is fun to imagine.

But for now he is to be celebrated, not only in Toronto but by Greeks and basketball fans everywhere.

“He has so much passion and there’s so much thirst for a hero, and that’s why this guy, he’s such just an exciting person for Greece right now,” Karantonis said.